Humans have always had the desire to make art based on the convergence of reality and imagination, whether it be half-human, half-animal creations such as centaurs or paintings such as the Creation of Adam in the Sistine Chapel. Ai Weiwei's latest installation in the Bon Marché department store creates a place where everyday shoppers can get a glimpse of fantastical creations just by lifting their heads up to the ceiling. A transcendent moment becomes possible in a retail store as people stop to reflect on these airborne constructions made by kite-makers from the Shangdon Provence in China.

I love when art can be viewed outside of the confines traditional gallery spaces, especially in places where people can see it without even trying. In an interview in Vogue Magazine, Weiwei describes the impetus for making this work by saying that he is "attracted to the idea of his work being, associated with perfumes or ladies' bags," and continued by noting, "I have no idea why and how the people are so, so interested, or why they're necessary. But I always admire that a human has those needs. It's fascinating."  It is definitely an odd and unexpected venue for an artist renowned for his political actions.

Ai Weiwei is known for being a political artist and is described in a recent article in the New Yorker as having an "unrelenting audacity and imagination". There are only a few rare cases where one can find political activists making great art and Ai Weiwei is often cited as the best contemporary example of such a combination. And while Ai Weiwei is probably one the most known and celebrated international artists living today, not all people think his art is worthy of all the attention it gets. One of these doubters is Jed Perl. Writing in The New Republic, Perl commends Ai Weiwei's politics but has quite a negative reaction to his art. Ai Weiwei: Spatial Matters, a recent book discusses the relationship of his politics to his art and architecture. It goes to show that the converging of worlds, in this case politics and art, or reality and the imagination, are not always easy polarities to navigate between.

In defense of art in a department store, I think of Rothko remarking that "the familiar identity of things has to be pulverized in order to destroy the finite association with which our society increasingly enshrouds our environment." Further, he says "without monsters and gods, art cannot enact our drama". Ai Weiwei's dragons and other creatures challenge the "familiar identity of things" and fill an everyday experience with a sense of drama. While not being overtly political in any way, this work impels us to transcend the ordinary experience of shopping and lets us dip into the more magical and imaginative world of his whimsical creations.

And along these lines, we are pleased to present an exhibition called "Chimerical Creatures" in the Slide Room Gallery that opens on Friday, Jan 22 at 7:30 (see poster below for more info). Here you will see how five local artists use fantastical beings to convey the idea of converging reality and the imagination.


Wendy Welch
Executive Director
Vancouver Island School of Art


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